R.I. environmental news service expands to Mass.

The nonprofit environmental news source ecoRI News, which was founded in Rhode Island in 2009, is launching a sister site – ecoMass.org – in order to cover environmental and social-justice news in Massachusetts.

PROVIDENCE – The nonprofit environmental news source ecoRI News, which was founded in Rhode Island in 2009, is launching a sister site – ecoMass.org – in order to cover environmental and social-justice news in Massachusetts.

“Massachusetts and Rhode Island share the same border and are linked by a common watershed; our economies overlap; many live in one state and work in the other, so it made sense to expand our coverage to include the Bay State,” ecoRI/ecoMass News Executive Director Frank Carini said in prepared remarks.

“Now our Massachusetts neighbors can look forward to news and features on topics such as urban farming, biking, the green economy, composting, marine stewardship and environmental justice,” added Carini.

Carini founded ecoRI News with his wife Joanna Detz, who is a writer and graphic designer. Carini, a veteran journalist, has worked with The Cincinnati Post, numerous Boston-area weeklies and The Newport Daily News.

According to its release, the news source plans to “grow its presence in the Bay State by employing the same grassroots efforts ecoRI news used to gain a following in Rhode Island.”

“We like to think of our brand as ‘slow journalism,’ and like slow food, it takes time to grow, but ultimately it is a better and more sustainable product,” Carini said in a statement.

The organization, which currently has four full-time employees, plans to keep its headquarters in Providence but said it hopes to have a bureau in Boston eventually.

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